Neverwinter Nights 2: Does the Community Want Something for Nothing?

NWN 2 WarCry contributor, Lanessar, has posted a provocative article on the official forums. His basic premise is that the community wants something for nothing and doesn't want to get its collective hands "dirty" in the building process:

Having just read a thread on "nwn era is at an end", I have to agree with the OP. But not for the specifics stated, and the thread went into mechanical/program related problems, which are not the real reason.

While a few projects have gotten started, a majority die in utero or come out so craptastically that my NWN1 PW actually (and I am not kidding) looks better, has more options, and is overall more fun to play than a majority of the NWN2 worlds I have been in.

I was all on the NWN2 conversion bandwagon. However, the number of contributors is literally one tenth that of the original game.

Custom content and all of that stuff - take a look at the NWN Vault six months after the release of NWN1 and six months after the release of NWN2. There is a VAST difference.

The number of online players is also terrible, somewhat relating to the multiplayer issues. But that's not the real reason.

Just so we do not stick on PWs/Multiplayer, take another look at the released mods - a couple of decent ones, but far, far, far less than the number of decent releases six months after NWN1 was released. I'd say it follows the ratio of assistance.

The NWN era is at an end. Part of the fault could be said to lie with OE, due to some of the issues (corruption, multiplayer support, user-friendliness), however, there is only one thing that killed the game for me. The OE issues were not insurmountable. The real issue was insurmountable.

It was the one thing that changed from NWN1 three years ago when I started. It's the one thing that is contributing to the low numbers today.

Don't blame WoW:BC - I started playing that game because of this one point. My NWN1 PW has regained at least 20 ex-WoW players fed up with that game. None of the other MMOs released (DDO, Vanguard) held more than a novel appeal for a few weeks for players. Hell, I sat at 10th level of DDO a few days after release.

The one thing which has changed and now makes life terribly difficult is a really simple reason. It's also really stupid.

People want something for nothing.

Head to the link above and read the rest of Lanessar's article and the comments that follow. You can add some of your own as well!